[joel]

Prevost Houston put a set on mine a couple years ago. Said they were leaking on a level 3 service. . Couldn’t tell a difference on my old coach.

---

1999 XLV X-6872,  liberty #440

[Roger]

There a several lengthy threads on this very subject with multiple opinions, including mine. Try a search, you should get what lots of info.

[Archived]

I replaced all eight shocks after a bad ride down a local mountain highway. It felt more like wranglling a boat than a bus. I had my hands full keeping her on the road. Turns out all 8 shocks were totally shot. No resistance at all. They might have been the original shocks.

I don’t think you’ll notice much difference on Interstates.

[Archived]

We had no idea how many years or miles were on our coach’s shocks when we bought it in May. We had Jeff Rowe zero it out. He went over everything he did when we picked up it and mentioned that we should consider getting new shocks given that we didn’t know how old they were.

We did notice that when we went over a significant bump or a signifcant uneveness between a bridge approach and the bridge the coach would have significant up and down travel and it took a few oscilliations for it to stop.

We were back at Jeff’s in early January of this year and were talked into getting the axles aligned by Peter Campbell which we did at Prevost JAX upon leaving Florida at the end of January. We also had all the shocks replaced. We got lots of great information about shocks and what to do from the PC contributors. Some suggested all standard Prevost, some suggested all Koni, some suggested Koni’s on the front (at various settings depending on was giving the advice) and standard Prevost in back.

We ended up with Koni’s in the front (set at medium) and standard Prevost in the back. When the old shocks came off I checked them and there was little if any compression left in any of them. I could push them together without much effort.

We immeidately noticed a smoother, more consistent ride with the new shocks. No more porpoising. If you don’t know how old the shocks on your coach are, or if you experience porpoising, consider replacing them. We also got the axles aligned which made the coach handle much better. The drive axle was WAY out of wack.

As another poster said, driving down a flat, level interstate you won’t notice much difference if any. But if the road is up and down and undulates, that is when the shocks go to work. Shocks on passenger cars are much better today than 20 or 25 years ago and last much longer. So most of us never experience in a passenger car the bad ride of bad shocks.

[needtocamp]

We replaced all our factory shocks after we bought this bus in 2009 with factory monroes. The coach still porpoises with two pair up front.

[Archived]

I know that oem steer axle shocks, new, have NO compression resistance. What is the logic? Maybe it is to do with having air springs instead of steel coil or leaf.

Since I did not sell them, I’m going to throw them on next week, but I expect to gain nothing on the vertical handling. The only reason to put these on, IMHO, is if you have a leaker and you don’t mind the ride.

[Chas]

I agree the OEM shocks compress easily, but I get the sense on mine that they handle rebound pretty well so I am not bobbing up and down like an old Buick with coil springs and bad shocks.

[Archived]

Jon wrote: “so I am not bobbing up and down like an old Buick with coil springs and bad shocks.”

The shocks we installed at JAX (as noted above) ended most if not all of the bobbing we had with the OEM shocks. I like Jon’s analogy. I wonder why I never see an Oldsmobile or Pontiac bobbing with bad shocks, seems like its always a Buick.

[Darrell]

This past week I installed new oem steer axle shocks. Just for the record and future reference, the old ones at 130,000 miles had the same compression and rebound resistance as the new ones.